Chelsea Guitars, after 30 years in business here at the Chelsea Hotel, received, right around the Christmas holidays last year, a notice from the new owners of the hotel that stated they needed us to vacate in six months. The Chelsea had just been passed to the new owners (the fifth set of owners in the last nine years), and they needed our space.

Things were pretty bleak for us, as we couldn’t afford the incredibly high commercial leases then being offered to us, and our time here at the Chelsea was quickly running out. I was about to call some reporters at the New York Times and other New York papers, who had covered us in the past, hoping against hope some building owner might be happy to have our “small but mighty” store in their building. A “Hail Mary” pass, as it were.

Right around this time, this guy, Scott Stiffler, showed up. I recognized him as a neighborhood guy, but not as a newspaper guy. After he introduced himself as the editor of Chelsea Now, I quickly explained thanks, but that I thought I could get a larger pop with the Times printing the story.

Scott suggested I let him break the story in Chelsea Now, and that other papers would hopefully then run with it. He said to me, “Listen. Yer gonna be surprised at the result…”

Something in his confidence, and being a Chelseaite since the early ’80s, and often reading his bylines in our local papers, so I acquiesced.

The story came out a few days later, and I immediately began getting calls and visits from neighborhood groups, the local community board, two state Senators, etc.

I was quite, uh, gobsmacked at the result. I immediately learned of the importance of Chelsea Guitars to the community, and that there were lots of folks willing to fight for us.

Within days, the owners of the Chelsea Hotel called me, and, realizing our importance to the community at large, worked with us, couldn’t have been fairer, thus allowing us to stay!

None of this would have happened without Scott. The idea that someone would work so hard to help us get our voice heard, who, along with Winnie McCroy, who wrote the story, would put so much time and effort into it…

It gave me faith, the faith that New York City is still a place filled with people driven by passion, who live in little neighborhoods one on top of the other, who still cared about their neighbors. And, after all these crazy years of change, still cared about each other.

Dan Courtenay

President, Chelsea Guitars

danguitars@aol.com / chelseaguitars.com

Chelsea Community News is made possible with the help of our awesome advertisers, and the support of our readers. If you like what you see, please consider taking part in our GoFundMe fundraiser (click here). To make a direct donation and/or send feedback about the site, send an email to Scott@chelseacommunitynews.com.